1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal apparatus for automatically generating/changing WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) access information and a method for controlling the same, and more particularly to a mobile terminal apparatus for automatically generating/changing WLAN access information of a user's mobile terminal when the user of a WLAN moves from one place to another to provide the user with maximum mobility, resulting in greater convenience for the user, and a method for the controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing development of the next generation wired/wireless integrated technologies, many developers have conducted intensive research into WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) architecture serving as a major component of next generation communication architectures based on such wired/wireless integrated technologies. It is expected that IT (Internet Technology) industries will rapidly change with the development of such WLAN technologies. Particularly, the WLAN architecture has been developed for use with a variety of mobile terminals such as notebook computers and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), with the result that an overall service area of the WLAN has become wider and more diverse.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual view illustrating a conventional WLAN architecture. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional WLAN architecture includes an AP (Access Point) 20 hard-wired to Internet 10. Mobile terminal devices 30 such as a notebook computer 30a or a PDA 30b can wirelessly communicate with the AP 20.
The AP 20 connects a wired LAN with a wireless LAN to enable any user of the mobile terminal devices 30 to freely surf the Internet 10, and operates over a distance in the range of 20˜30 m in an internal environment, or over a distance in the range of 100˜150 m in an external environment. The AP 20 can be wirelessly connected either to mobile terminal devices 30 for use in buildings where the devices 30 are located within a radius of about 20˜30 m from the installation area of AP 20, or to other mobile terminal devices 30 for use outside where the devices 30 are located within a radius of about 100˜150 m from the installation area of AP 20. To move from one location to another, a WLAN user must change WLAN access information of the mobile terminal devices 30 to be classified according to WLAN service request areas and their APs; however, this may seriously limit expansion of a serviceable area of the WLAN for guaranteeing the user a free access thereto.
For example, in the case where the WLAN user moves to his or her office after accessing the WLAN at home, he or she must change prescribed WLAN access information of his or her mobile terminal to another WLAN access information for the office area, resulting in inconvenience to the user.
To solve this problem, conventional WLAN users have manually pre-registered WLAN access information (for example, AP setup information related to the WLAN and TCP/IP-related information) of prescribed areas they frequently use in their mobile terminal devices, such that they manually select their desired WLAN access information from among the pre-registered WLAN access information whenever they move from one place to another place in a WLAN service area.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a conventional WLAN access information setup procedure.
Referring to FIG. 2, a user registers prescribed regional information of a plurality of areas he or she wishes in his or her mobile terminal at step S10. In this case, the regional information registered in the user's mobile terminal includes AP setup information for use in regional APs and network setup information of any mobile terminal adapted to access the APs. In the case where the user requests to search for the pre-registered WLAN access information at step S20 after moving from an initial area to another area, a plurality of WLAN access information pre-registered at step S10 are displayed on a display of his or her mobile terminal at step S30. If the user selects one WLAN access information related to any area he or she wishes from among the plurality of WLAN access information at step S40, the user's mobile terminal changes its current WLAN access information to another access information on the basis of the selected WLAN access information at step S50.
Although the aforesaid conventional WLAN access information setup procedure shown in FIG. 2 has an advantage in that it reduces the user's inconvenience of manually entering appropriate regional WLAN access information in his or her mobile terminal whenever the user moves from one place to another place, other disadvantages still remain, that is, the user must pre-register a plurality of WLAN access information in his or her mobile terminal and must manually change prior WLAN access information to another WLAN access information for his or her desired area whenever he or she moves from one area to another area. Moreover, in the event that the user moves to another place not pre-registered in the mobile terminal, it is necessary for the user to manually enter new WLAN access information in the mobile terminal.